worst reunions

oh gawd i forgot to include the "other" option. brb i have to find a giant pile of shit and jump into it

i'm just gonna put it out there on the line that the nirvana "reunion" was... ill-advised.

a lot of this is just nostalgia but for me it might be between smashing pumpkins and weezer. i was reading the kenny g wikipedia entry today and saw that he had done some weird guest stint on a 2009 weezer song. i watched the video and the entire thing was really sad. then i watched the 1994 say it ain't so performance on letterman and there was something so charming about cuomo's giant khaki pants (similar to what i was wearing in middle school a few years later) and i wished that they had never, ever reunited.

almost everyone else on the list i can sort of forgive because they got a lot older and didn't find much success and they probably ached for one final round on the stage in front of adoring fans. but corgan/pumpkins and weezer didn't wait long enough and were painfully worse upon reuniting, and it makes it harder to listen to their older stuff knowing what was just around the corner

no Eagles, no credibility!

goddammit, it's true. :(

and lots of others. it's late and i was just google searching and please forgive me

i did manage to include Sublime (with Rome) though because i know there's a bunch of huge sublime fans on ilm

voted for Sublime With Rome. even without having any particular affection for the original band, the way the 2 surviving members of the band 'reunited' against the wishes of Brad Nowell's family was just scummy. the drummer actually left the band and apologized, so now it's JUST the bassist from Sublime with a couple of other guys.

Queen (2005), not sure if it was 2005 show i saw on TV but they the lead singer from Foreigner singing. they played both Queen and Foreigner songs. i could not believe my eyes.

The Doors probably would be the next one i'd mostly likely vote for, the way the other 3 guys just kept squeezing everything they could out of that franchise without Morrison really went beyond the usual inevitable cash-ins to something really relentless and desperate.

Pixies 2k14, anyone?

i thought about including the american prayer album a separate option. that album was my introduction to the doors in high school, and i really haven't explored them much beyond that tbh. i do remember enjoying the song that had the sleigh bells.

voted for Sublime With Rome. even without having any particular affection for the original band, the way the 2 surviving members of the band 'reunited' against the wishes of Brad Nowell's family was just scummy. the drummer actually left the band and apologized, so now it's JUST the bassist from Sublime with a couple of other guys.

― some dude, Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just looked and apparently it's Josh Freese on drums now.

Thank you for leaving the Who off the list.

Inclined to vote for Big Star, more for In Space than their live stuff. Like Cut The Crap, it's been largely written out of their history, but said writing-out happened almost simultaneously with the album's release.

when did Weezer even split?

The Doors probably would be the next one i'd mostly likely vote for, the way the other 3 guys just kept squeezing everything they could out of that franchise without Morrison really went beyond the usual inevitable cash-ins to something really relentless and desperate.

p sure it was just two of them for most of the more egregious stuff. by the time Astbury joined one of 'em sued the others to make them change the name

actually I definitely knew that well enough once to make a joke on ILM about it

big star reunion was pretty much the only way you were gonna see chilton live and reliably sing several big star songs. others of that ilk where it's basically a band reforming to tour, play the hits, pay some bills i can't begrudge plus dirtly little secret very often the reunion shows are better than the shows the original time around. weezer seems like the most detrimental in terms of legacy and love from fans. pixies giving them a run for their money though for sure.

Voted python

ooh stooges a contender in that i treat their post reunion album (albums?) like jordan in a wizards jersey

Weezer for me, I grew up listening to Weezer & Pinkerton and they have shat all over themselves for more than a decade now.

stooges reunion albs p lousy, but the live show i saw, when they performed the whole of Fun House w/Steve Mackay, was a blast and in no way detrimental to their rep

Beatles (Anthology songs)
- one of these songs was fun, one was shit, it made George back some of the money cunto stole off him

Big Star (1993, 2005)
- idk

Black Flag (2003,
- A+ lols, maybe the best reunion ever

...2010, 2011)
- did these happen?

Black Flag (2013 debacle)
- so lame it might not even have been noticed if Flag hadn't happened at the same time. the singer getting fired onstage and relievedly coming out in support of the rival band makes it more amusing

Blink-182 (2009)
- didn't know they split

Echo & the Bunnymen (1997)
- one good song, should have stopped when it turned back to Electrafixion

Gang of Four (2005)
- have heard they've done tours with only Gill and been cancelled once promoters or punters found out, dunno anything else

Guns N' Roses (???-Chinese Democracy)
- never split tbf. I don't count anything post-Adler anyway

Jesus and Mary Chain (2007)
- one good song, some decent gigs

Nirvana (McCartney, 2012)
- not a Nirvana reunion, was fun

No Doubt (2008)
- can't remember if I didn't know whether they'd reunited or split in the first place

Pavement (2010)
- don't care about Pavement but know lots of people who were happy to get to see the members of Pavement play Pavement songs together so this one is 100% positive

Queen (2005)
- dunno which Queen reunion this was or how many members were involved but they've all been embarrassing faragoes

Sex Pistols (1996)
- this would have been great if it was just the press conference, but then they played a bunch of great shows (after a shithouse first one I guess). wonder if the one I saw was the smallest reunion show they've ever played

Slint (2005, 2007, 2013)
- idk

Smashing Pumpkins (2006)
- dunno which one this was but I'm sure it was awful and a petulant use of the name

Sublime (with Rome) (2009)
- insulting revival of the name, mitigated very slightly by the original band being terrible

Television (2002)
- played some good shows afaik?

The Chameleons (2000)
- idk

The Doors (21st Century)
- awful, sad revival of pretty bad band

The Pixies (2004)
- played some great shows and made lots of ppl happy. recorded two fantastic songs. carried on inappropriately long, Deal OTM

The Stooges (2003)
- recordings v unnecessary but people get to see some good rock shows and Watt gets paid, plus no-one bought the records, even Skull Ring, so no harm done

Van Halen (2004 - Hagar)
- no way this wasn't terrible

Van Halen (2007 - Roth)
- the Wolfgang thing is p tragic but people getting to see DLR perform Van Halen songs with most of Van Halen can't be all bad

Velvet Underground (1993)
- entertained people, funny when Reed deliberately paces the words all different to f/w ppl singing along

Weezer (2000)
- everything after the second Islands In The Sun video is just "current Weezer" to me, idgaff but the band seem to be having a lot of fun and to have found a regular fanbase who enjoy following their output, good luck to all involved

conclusion: most of these are p good, cancel poll and start again

Heard good things about Television's 1992 reunion shows, and the s/t record was pretty great; certainly at least up there with Adventure.

Write-in for Magnetic Fields without Susan Anway

Jesus and Mary Chain + Pavement both notably better live acts as reunion acts than they were in their original go-round. (OK, to be fair, I didn't see JaMC play live before 1990.)

Guided By Voices. Bad enough that I began to wonder why I ever thought they were good. Still undecided, but leaning heavily towards purging the 5% of their albums I own (which is like 8) and just keeping Human Amusement.

I didn't know that Weezer ever broke up. Feels like there's been a new Weezer album to ignore every two years or so

the Go4 reunion album on which they redid their classics is fucking ace.

so .. they get a free pass.

yeah there has never been a point when Weezer, No Doubt or GNR officially 'broke up.'

kinda inclined to say the Velvets but their reunion was a blip that doesn't obscure their canonical work at all.

weezer announced they were 'taking a break' and the members moved to separate cities and started new bands. they reunited for a high paying festival gig and then did a small reunion tour after that that generated befuddling (to me at least) enthusiasm. it's around this time that pinkerton's 'lost classic' status goes mainstream. the green weezer album had high anticipation, came out same day as amnesiac and i can remember maybe a third of the crowd at the midnight sale (remember those?) were there for weezer. interesting if their hiatus has been largely forgotten, like w/ roxy music or talking heads (or sleater kinney except everyone knew they really were taking a break - corin had a baby). a group that just peaks early and then gradually starts to suck more is different than a band that releases to perfect albums (in theory) and then reunites and releases a stream of increasingly worse records. no doubt never actually broke up though i guess you could be forgiven for assuming their hiatus would be like nsync's. gnr either never broke up or never reunited.

I remember a magazine feature on this.
Os Mutantes had a troubled reunion but I don't know if that had anything to do with the reception.
Happy Mondays did their reunion on a Jim Davidson show or something.

I recall some reviews saying the Von live reunion was a disaster.

came out same day as amnesiac

what's that? I remember the other big thing that came out that day as Lateralus by Tool.

It's the Radiohead album.

ah - you're right! i confused the midnight sale for radiohead w/ the midnight sale for rem - weezer/tool/rem came out in may, radiohead was june i think

I was just trying to make a dumb joke about amnesia and missing wildly, I guess.

Distinct memory of buying that Weezer album at midnight, listening to it with my college roommates and realizing they would never be good again.

Personally, I think the Pixies reunion burned through the most goodwill for me, but due to personal/personnel reasons and general dickishness, carrying on too long, etc.

Some of these reunions (thinking of the Stooges and the JAMC here) were actually quite good fun!

But if Slowdive were on this list, I'd have voted for them as worst out of principle. (Also MBV, but I've had retained a lot more goodwill for them if they'd not released an album.)

Dunno, I think the album was good enough to justify..

Only one of these bands made a record with Skrillex.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a new Slowdive album. Would have been nice if Chapterhouse had another album in them but it was just a live tour.

I'm not actually that enthused about live reunions in general.

See, I don't mind live reunions. It's a moment, a rush, a single night of nostalgia. It's when they gotta go and piss all over their legacy by recording something that sounds so completely out of date and embarrassing that I wish it hadn't happened. I have a lot more respect for bands that do the reunion gigs, then leave it at that.

There's a few album-reunions that worked, though -- Mission of Burma, the Who, New York Dolls...

GBV otm
leaning way too hard on the unsustainable "party band" model
no respect for selves

Violent Femmes 2013 reunion deserves mention here if only because they almost immediately fired Victor Delorenzo and replaced him with Amanda Palmer's friend.

kinda inclined to say the Velvets but their reunion was a blip that doesn't obscure their canonical work at all.

this reunion actually seems like part of the legend at this point

it probably would have been really embarrassing if it happened in the 00s

Very few of these I actually want to player-hate on at all, worse things they could do with their songbook and time. but there are a few.

Velvet Underground is kind of embarrassing in hindsight thanks to lou's "Severin take the whip baby severin take the whip now" scattage but as a young aspiring alt-kid at the time i was ecstatic.

queen + paul rodgers was actively embarrassing and while i wish may & taylor had just done some kind of low key small hall thing where they'd just sing the stuff they wrote I can't hate on them for wanting to do "we will rock you" at the big places and they've since replaced rodgers with adam lambert so they've learned their lesson.

The post-Deal Pixies have been pretty embarrassing but i was all for the foursome raking in the $$$ on the road.

So I'm probably voting for Doors 21st Century because holy shit Ian Astbury are you fucking kidding me

LL - I seem to remember from past posts ya dig the GBV - I'm disappointed on that 'OTM'. Give the new stuff a chance - I'd rank Cool Planet up there w/ Propeller, UTBUTS, Vampire On Titus ... I think they're post 2011 stuff (yes, 'let's go eat the factory' was a mis-step) gets better as each album comes out. Now that they've gotten rid of Fennell as a drummer, they're only sounding better. Yes the Pollard 'bro'-y' performances are a little cringeworthy live, but the original spirit is there for sure. Don't give up. They won't hit re-united MoB or DJr. levels, but I think what they're putting out is special in its own right.

That said - Black Flag debacle may be worst on this list.

doubling down on doors 21st century as my choice since the guys were gradually forced by lawsuits to make their name less doorsy as they went from the singer from the cult to the singer from fuel to the singer from steelheart to the singer of a doors cover band.

I recall some reviews saying the Von live reunion was a disaster.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, July 18, 2014 5:09 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if this is the black metal Von I saw them play to like 20 ppl tops and I thought it was fine

seen reformed GO4 twice, both at (indoor) festivals, first time was great and second time it was Andy Gill + dudes who I doubt were born when they broke up first time. they reduced a ~1000 audience to about 200 a while before the end which was tough to witness

in terms of cred damage, it might be hard to beat Lynyrd Skynyrd 1987-present

didn't densmore sue the rest of the doors for using the name almost immediately, forcing them to use 'doors of the 21st century'? he also wrote a big thing for the nation congratulating himself for singlehandedly preventing cadillac from using 'break on through' in an ad.

brad c otm - ppl know about the crash but that doesn't prevent them from letting clownshow skynyrd paint their impressions of actual skynyrd. not sure even mike love can top that.

oh yeah probably would have voted for skynyrd if that'd been an option

and had no idea about andy gill & friends version of go4, thought that reunion was just the short tour they did a decade ago.

re: doors, group was always called Doors Of The 21st Century, the lawsuit is what forced them to change it to D21C in 2005, then Riders Of The Storm, then Manzarek-Krieger as they went through singers

def knew the gang of two had gone on without the original rhythm section, but i was shocked when i belatedly heard jon king left

hahahaha i had know idea the doors kept changing their name after that, my lord.

Pixies have gone on waaaay too long as someone mentioned upthread. I had no problem with them reuniting at first. I went to their gig in Phoenix Park in 04 and it was great but the recent Glastonbury performance was lifeless and at a recent gig supporting Arcade Fire, Frank Black walked off after 30 mins saying that his guitar was "broken". The new tunes are wretched. No Kim Deal either.

VU reunion was a heap of shit too but at least it was short and they didn't release any music

the fake kim deal vocal on "bag boy" is definitely the saddest reunion-related thing i've heard since paul rodgers and queen's "c-lebrity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOIfqbKVvrI

that vid probably wins saddest reunion-related thing i've seen

Guided By Voices. Bad enough that I began to wonder why I ever thought they were good. Still undecided, but leaning heavily towards purging the 5% of their albums I own (which is like 8) and just keeping Human Amusement.

― campreverb, Friday, July 18, 2014 10:51 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would probably go with this too. releasing a 4 hour live documentary called The Electrifying Conclusion and reuniting 6 years later is one of the most irrationally-angry-making things I can think of.

Feel like Steely Dan should have at least been an option. I've never listened to the post-Gaucho albums myself, or seen them live ($$$), but there's something weird about a band that was so much about hermetic perfection and no-live-shows becoming such a touring machine (including full-on human-jukebox whole-album shows).

Yes it was Von the black metal band. It was a review in Terrorizer of an (indoor?) metal festival that Ihsahn, Jarboe and Watain also played. It was highly anticipated but apparently it was awful. But that was just one show.

I didn't mean that I disliked live reunions, I just can't get that excited about even some of my favourite bands playing the hits. And some bands build such a legend in your mind that even though the idea of them playing live is exciting, it's very unlikely they'll perform at the level you'd hope for (actually Slowdive and Chapterhouse might fall into that category for me but I'd go see them if I could anyway). I found Butthole Surfers mostly quite underwhelming but that was a hiatus, which they seem to have went back on.
The two early gigs from the Pixies reunion were amazing, about as good as I could have expected aside from the dream situation where I could request two more songs ("Alec Eiffel" might have made it perfect).

Live reunions with no new recordings make total sense if they have no new worthy material, which might be most of the time.

I thought American Music Club's reunion albums and tours were very good and I don't recall anyone being unhappy about it.

I heard the Bauhaus reunion album was great.

Slint reunions totally acceptable to me. Nothing too embarrassing, and it allows Brian McMahan to support his family, and Britt Walford to support whatever the hell he does with his time.

Go4's rerecording of their best songs was pretty pointless, tempted to vote for that.

for the most part, but the original line-up versions of the Songs Of The Free were pretty outstanding

the Songs Of The Free material, I mean. LOOOOOOOVE their take on "We Live As We Dream Alone" esp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWb8_dDAaL4#t=47m23s

at 47:23

Most of these I don't even give half a shit a shit about but the whole Pixies debacle is pretty grim.

I don't know why people are being so down on GBV, I still find them kind of endearing.

man it totally hadn't registered with me that the Pixies had been back together for so long. why do they bother?

They've been reunited now for as long as they'd been broken up, and longer than they were together in the 80s/90s.

^^A thread idea I've never pulled the trigger on: "Bands whose reunions lasted longer than their original tenure"

OK, I totally forgive the Bauhaus reunion album, because it was both great, but also revealing of the cracks that broke them up in the first place.

what did them in finally? My recollection was that the final breakup was quite sudden.

Daniel and Peter; conflicting egos. Both of them got too used to being the sole frontman, I'd say.

They seemed to have several rounds of reunion, too. Like I remember seeing a reformed Bauhaus in NYC before I left in 1998, and then the album, in what, 2003, plus second lot of touring?

Reunes what I have seen:

Buzzcocks: There was nothing wrong with this one, all four dudes of the classic period, sounded like they'd never been away.

Velvets: Very nice of them to get back together and play my local midsized venue and have the elements conspire to allow me to get tickets.

In both cases, the following albums were .. Um, souvenirs? The buzz one was alright just about, the velvets live disc was kinda unplayable really.

When Television got back, I really did not want to see it, and I don't regret not going even though that means I have never seen them live.

I saw the Pixies play Doolittle, and had a blast. I had to admire how formulaic they were - they played the whole record in order, then played the B-sides, also in order. But they sounded great and the audience just treated it like a big celebration of this record that the Pixies were conducting. But after that I had no interest in seeing them again.

Pavement was great and they played better than they did in the olden days, with a killer setlist of just about every song you'd hope to hear from them. This was at the Greek in Berkeley when they managed to drag Gary Young out as well, who managed to hang in there for a couple of songs.

in terms of cred damage, it might be hard to beat Lynyrd Skynyrd 1987-present

i saw skynyrd on the '87 tour and it was awesome. but yeah

Write-in for Magnetic Fields without Susan Anway

write-in for magnetic fields without n3ll b3ram*

Didn't Yuck have a reunion after a breakup that lasted about 2 years at most? Does it count with relatively new bands?

I'm curious how people rate Mercyful Fate's reunion.

Write-in vote for the DKT/MC5 tour in 2008.

Bad Brains circa Rise, anybody?

Another write-in for Os Mutantes - maybe not the absolute worst, but the most disappointing for me.

yeah the Velvets one was amazing imo. saw them at Glastonbury 93 aged 19 and immediately bought the banana album on cassette straight after! i'd be amazed if anyone would begrudge them a bit of success and limelight as theirs was the classic way of doing it; come back, play a few shows then fuck off, no harm done.

first few uk Pixies comeback gigs at Brixton were an absolute riot.

no mention of MBV? great shows at first but less so the recent ones, the comeback album saves the day i suppose.

I saw one of the Roth van halen shows and it was probably the worst concert I've ever seen.

Last years Sabbath reunion resulted in a mediocre to fair album but the shoddy treatment of Bill Ward makes it a strong contender here.

Pixies is obviously they play this big a room under that name and this small a hall if they book as Frank Black. It's kind of surprising that they just did not keep going without Deal back in the 90s, since Charles pretty much pushed her tunes off the CDs. It's probably good some air got taken out of that balloon anyway, as they were cool and a good band but I think some people made them out to be a bit more than they actually were.

you're certainly not alone in that last opinion there, I never got them at all.

When I saw the Stooges play live it felt like they could not have possibly been any better than in the heyday. Of course that is probably wrong but it was such.an ecstasy. The album's have been poor for sure but I would still call their getting back togethor an unmitigated success.

Jefferson Airplane '89 lp is bland as fuck.

I've heard that VU reunion sped Sterling's death thanks to the way Lou was behaving. & I found that it seemed like the band felt like a unit plus his ego somewhat separate from watching them on tv. Wonder if that was different live in the same room .

I think it was the opposite, that he started to be unwell and did the reunion while he still could.

Also, my guess is that Lou tired of it fairly quickly. I was lucky to get one of the early gigs.

Well, it's good to know that piscesx has me on KillFile! ;-)

Weezer never split up

all I remember about seeing Os Mutantes is Sergio Dias soloing forever. Didn't know they'd released anything...

Write-in vote for the DKT/MC5 tour in 2008.

I remember thinking I wouldn't miss this for anything, knowing full well it was far from the actual 5. But when Evan Dando was announced as the guest vocalist for the show nearest to me, that completely killed any interest I'd had in seeing them. They might as well have picked James Taylor; I assumed it was a joke until it was confirmed.

no Eagles, no credibility!

― Lee626,

get over it

Clicked VU by mistake but was trying to vote Weezer. Funny to realize how brief the hiatus was now, versus the span of their career. But they were very definitely 'over,' and increasingly beloved, and then the green album came out and was lame and dumb and obvious and nothing has reversed that. they could have been an awesome legendary two-album band if the revival had just had some different name. Weezer of the 21st Century.

yeah, i left weezer on for very subjective reasons. in 1998-99 or so, i guess i could have tried to Ask Jeeves if weezer were officially broken up or just on hiatus, but the norm (for me at least) was still just talking to people in real life, and word on the street (in my high school) was that they were broken up, that matt sharp and rivers hated each other, and that rivers was going to harvard (or something). so when they got back together for the green album and touring it didn't seemed like more than a mere resumption of activities. and also at the concert i attended in columbia mo (supported by the get up kids lol) pretty much everyone was like "they're back together! yaywoo!". i realize the misguided opinions of early internet high school kids doesn't trump facts, but i didn't want to leave them off

so when they got back together for the green album and touring it didn't seemed like more than a mere resumption of activities.

yeah at the time the press and everyone was calling that 2000 tour a reunion

Slint were fantastic when I saw them at Dublin in 07 as were Pavement

Yeah Pavement was a lot of fun. Best reunion gig I saw was the first MBV one.

Also, my guess is that Lou tired of it fairly quickly. I was lucky to get one of the early gigs.

― Mark G, Saturday, July 19, 2014 4:25 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's ironic, considering the reason they broke up/scrapped their US dates (and MTV Unplugged) was because Lou insisted they stick with the "hits," while Cale wanted them to do new shit.

The Misfits coulda been serious contenders.

Foreigner might have avoided this list (and given how lame they were to begin with, maybe they should). Out of the Gramm-ashes, in the mid-aughts Mick Jones decided to sally forth with just him, longtime (but not original) member Thom Gimbel, and...a whole bunch of hired ringers. I saw them live (for free) in 2006 and it was awkward as hell. Sure, they sounded ok, but part of the fun of a concert is appreciating the unit. For a band as old as Foreigner, fans want to treasure the history of the band.

I am not one of those dudes who demands the lineup be original when I see concerts but fer god's sakes, it is a tad bit awkward when your lead vocalist, who was 15 when the band started, talks about how 'we've' been around a long time, and how 'this is one of our earliest tunes'. THEIR, not YOUR. YOU weren't there! None of you were!

But alas, they released THIS crapmonster in 2009:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Foreigner_-_Can%27t_Slow_Down_%28September_9,_2009%29.jpg

Parroting the title of a Lionel Richie album? a big 'grade stamp' F in the middle of the cover? EXCLUSIVELY sold by Wal-Mart?

You were supposed to tour corporate events for the rest of your career, not record. the album was not well received - for instance, see this review: "http://www.nu.nl/cd-recensies/2196148/foreigner--cant-slow-down.html";, which puts it aptly: "De excellente songschrijfvaardigheden van Jones, Hansen en hitcomponist Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Faith Hill) zijn routine geworden en hebben nergens meer de glans van de beroemde radiohits die hele volksstammen kunnen meezingen."

Write-in for the lifeless Police reunion of 2007. Early songs were slowed down to a geriatric pace that was more dub than reggae. Sting's kid's band opened. $300 million in revenues.

Gang of Four reunion was both cynical and ace.

The worst reunion ever (and not in the poll) was The Monkees in 1986 without Nesmith, resulting in this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Monkees-Pool-It%21.jpg

Enough said. Couldn't vote for anything else.

Nah, i loved "That Was Then, This Is Now" as a kid. It was tacked onto the end of a K-Tel Monkees best-of tape we had in the car.

Pixies were pretty lifeless when i saw them in 2005. MBV were very good in 2008 but no urge to see them again. Saw and enjoyed the Afghan Whigs last night but do wish i'd seen the initial reunion with Rick on board.

what about the critically panned "Justus" album? xpost

The Misfits coulda been serious contenders.

I get the logic for this but they played Penn State (Jerry's daughter was a student) a show or two after Michael Graves and their drummer quit, and instead of cancelling they had the drummer for Murphy's Law play and there was this line of kids by the side of the stage, with each kid getting to chant the lyrics to a song along with Jerry. At the beginning of the show he said something like "each of you! stand there! do the chorus! DONT TOUCH THE FUCKING MIC!" It was awesome.

I assume due to Jerry's daughter reportedly being in town, they'd sometimes do a gig in town during even the briefest tours, so their itinerary would like like Spinal Tap's London-NY-Chicago-Springfield-LA jaunt. I don't think he did at the show I was at, but supposedly at one show Jerry tried to lead a "WE ARE!!!!!!" (PENN STATE!!!!!)" chant only the audience was like "Wtf this is a misfits show"

So i just can't hate.

I wouldn't call it bad (actually, it was pretty awesome), but last year's Terrorizer tour was one of the most confusing events in metal history. I've put it in the reunion thread because it kind of was and kind of wasn't.

The most confusing thing is that the band was still active at the time they announced the tour, having just released Hordes of Zombies the year prior, with Katina Culture and Anthony Rezhawk filling out the roster with Sandoval. And yet, the tour was in support of the 24th anniversary of World Downfall (weird fucking milestone to tour in support of). And in tribute, they were going to play the entire World Downfall album in its entirety!

Except the 'they' didn't include Culture or Rezhawk! Instead, Pete hired two ringers (Lee Harrison and Sam Molina), formerly of Monstrosity, who had no previous involvement with the band, to fill out guitar, vocals, and bass. Naturally, this meant all post-World Downfall material was going to be ignored, as they didn't have time to learn the two other albums, so it was one of the shortest headlining sets I've ever seen (a lean 30 minutes or so).

It was actually really cool - they sounded great as a unit, and folks like me who missed them the first time around got to hear these songs live in an intimate setting. They sold World Downfall shirts that had been out of print for years (I snagged one), and were offering to autograph photos for everybody who bought one.

But the bizarre thing is that since then, I still cannot find any word from Sandoval (or the band) as to whether this was a one-off tour and now they will go back to recording with Culture/Rezhawk, or if Molina/Harrison are now permanent and this is the new lineup.

Wikipedia cites Harrison/Molina as permanent members, but there is no supporting article attached to suggest that Culture/Rezhawk were replaced. My guess is the band is probably going to be this outfit that just records whenever Sandoval feels like it, but it's just strange overall. I can't imagine that he'd tour with new bandmates unless he was replacing the old ones, unless Culture/Rezhawk were just incapable of playing the Downfall material, or just didn't want to.

(If anybody does know more, feel free to share).

many many xps --

Yes the Pollard 'bro'-y' performances are a little cringeworthy live, but the original spirit is there for sure. Don't give up. They won't hit re-united MoB or DJr. levels, but I think what they're putting out is special in its own right.
I believe you, and yet I think I just need to remove them from all social media so I'm not constantly reminded of the immensely irritating drunken bro factor and can just listen (like I used to).

Wow, that Terrorizer story is baffling/depressing. I really liked the two Terrorizer albums with Rezhawk on vocals, especially Hordes of Zombies (I'm a big Resistant Culture fan).

Admittedly, I haven't heard those two albums. I just find it strange that a band would tour with a different lineup than the one that just recorded their last album as part of a very short anniversary tour (they only played a handful of small shows) without explanation as to the futures of the musicians they *didn't* take on tour.

it was funny too - I saw them at the Haven Lounge in Winter Park. It wasn't exactly crowded that night (whereas Obituary, a month later, would have the place overflowing), but there were at least 100-200 or so by the time the final opening act finished.

As soon as that act finished, almost everybody left, and there were maybe 30 of us there to see Terrorizer, who were the goddamned headliner!

They basically sound like Resistant Culture albums. Here's the title track from Hordes of Zombies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTPO5A4KFlc

And here's Resistant Culture's "Natural Law":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf0Zqn0br2Y

that's actually pretty good! also proves that the acquaintance I saw the show with was full of horseshit. I asked him out of curiosity how the new lineup was and he was like 'oh the new bandmates came from some stupid alternative metal crap and it's like that'.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I vote ELP. Their reunion records were so indescribably bad that you can't even get anybody to admit these days that they were ever anything less than awful. _The Weirdness_ was not a good record, but it didn't make people actually go and throw out their copies of _Fun House_.

1973 Byrds reunion album (w/original members) was kinda lame. Was that the first major rock band reunion?

Also Jefferson Airplane album from 1989. But I should have caught their live show that year.

Smashing Pumpkins without a fucking doubt. For the first four or five years, everything he did and said on stage and off seemed like willful self-destruction.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ah you lot..

The Pixies one isn't perfect, but.

Write-in for the lifeless Police reunion of 2007. Early songs were slowed down to a geriatric pace that was more dub than reggae. Sting's kid's band opened. $300 million in revenues

I'd heard it was kinda hit or miss and thankfully the show I saw in Milwaukee was pretty decent. I mean the Police always seemed to be a studio band at heart but if the tempos were regularly slower than the records (certainly, for some songs they were) I didn't notice. Stew definitely sounded good, the other two were alright. The only real irritating things were 1) any and all of Sting's stage banter and 2) the song that was slowed down into a Sarah McLaughlin commercial (I think it was "Invisible Sun"??) Also we got Elvis Costello opening which made for an excellent double-bill...never thought I'd see the day

Suede got off lightly then..

The Pixies reunion should have been split into 2 options - with and without Deal. The first go-round, tons of people were excited about them and they played some good shows. After Deal split, there's no way I could even imagine they'd be worth seeing, though I'd almost wager they sound pretty much the same.

page and plant

I wouldn't call it bad (actually, it was pretty awesome), but last year's Terrorizer tour was one of the most confusing events in metal history.

apparently David, Katina and Anthony are indeed out of the band and Sam Molina/Lee Harrison are the new permanent members of Terrorizer. They're coming back here on tour. I just wonder what the fuck it is they're going to play. I don't demand lineup authenticity to enjoy my metal so I mean another "World Downfall" front to back would be fine, but I don't want to go to a show where the 45 minute drive to get there is longer than the set itself.

yet there seems to be no news of a new album, and I can't imagine he'd have hired these two guns to play the material from the prior two albums.

I saw one of the Roth van halen shows and it was probably the worst concert I've ever seen.

Last years Sabbath reunion resulted in a mediocre to fair album but the shoddy treatment of Bill Ward makes it a strong contender here.

― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Friday, July 18, 2014 11:36 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I stand by this. The Roth van halen show was so bad i couldnt believe it was a real band.

what are the biggest sham reunions that have happened? I don't mean "XXX plays the hits of YYY" type reunions, I mean reunions that went under the band's original name with 65-80% of the original members missing, or with the band's most identifiable member not joining (and not for a reason of "being dead")...

The surviving members of Boney M all have their own touring versions of the group, guess you could say that's several examples.

Kraftwek. Although, like Boney M, they put on a hell of a show.

the faces reformed and toured with mick hucknall singing instead of rod stewart.

There was that Cars tour with Rundgren in place of Ocasek. That was pretty lame. (Not much better with Ocasek back in the fold a few years later, tbh)

"The Doors of the 21st Century"

I thought the New Cars thing was pretty cool! Kasim Sulton and Prairie Prince involved as well (along with Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes, so more members of Rundgren's regular band than original Cars). Kind of halfway between a reunion + a tribute act. Maybe more of these groups that are reforming with key original members absent should amalgamate with other bands in the same situation, so that everyone on stage is sufficiently famous?

any number of motown four tops/temptations reunions, prob xp

I'm gonna need some explanation for those five Chameleons votes. "Why Call It Anything" was great.

Have Spandau Ballet been mentioned at all in the thread yet?

Oh were they not crap the first time?

Well yeah, which is why they didn't need to come back a second time.

Good point.

do people still hate the pixies for that reunion? those shows in 2004 or so were pretty good.

does branwell still think slowdive should not have reformed given that the album the wound up putting out is exceptional as have all their live shows?

"Kraftwek. Although, like Boney M, they put on a hell of a show.

― everything,"

if they put on a great show (and they do) I don't know why they'd be up for consideration. also I don't know that I'd ever consider kraftwerk as split up and reformed. they just evolve slowly over huge periods of time.

"what are the biggest sham reunions that have happened? I don't mean "XXX plays the hits of YYY" type reunions, I mean reunions that went under the band's original name with 65-80% of the original members missing, or with the band's most identifiable member not joining (and not for a reason of "being dead")..."

the current iteration of Yes with Steve Howe is pretty much like this, now that Squire is dead. The only other very long time members you have are Geoff Downes, who was only on one proper Yes album at the time, and Alan White, who actually may or may not be involved alf the time because he can't drum anymore and they get a second drummer to follow him. If Howe had any sense he'd join the other Yes with Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin and do a final thing before hanging it up.

Is White’s lack of chops why they take the songs at such a deadly slow tempo, or is it just a function of all these old guys needing the extra room?

A sham reunion that never happened -- few bought tickets, so it was cancelled:

http://www.thewho.net/australia/images/cominglge.jpg

Ironically, it was Pete Townshend who suggested Daltrey and Entwistle tour Australia without him and call it "The Who."

And the current lineup of Dr. Feelgood has no original members, despite the fact that three of the original four are still alive.

I think that's been the case for about 20-25 years? *consults Wikipedia* yes, since Lee Brilleaux died in 1994.

Yeah, but it's a "showband" innit?

Yeah, dunno if they even count as a "reunion," sham or otherwise, since I think they just kept slotting new people in whenever someone left.

It's sort of like The Lurkers (a band without a thread, btw)

The original four split up. They reformed with a new vocalist, and the bass player that replaced the original one for a few singles.

Gradually, they all left apart from that 'replacement' bass player, and that's been the band for the past 20 years. This band are not really representative of the original band, but the continuum is there, sort of.

Anyway, the three original original Lurkers have reformed and they're The Lurkers GLM (as in Gods Lonely Men, their second album).

Still, Howard Wall is having none of it.

Yeah I think they can be grouped with Napalm Death xp

Pop Will Eat Itself's current line-up is just one original member

Mentioned in the AC/DC thread, but with Malcolm now dead, Cliff retired, Brian going deaf, and Phil in legal limbo, the current line-up is just Angus and whomever.

But is there an actual line-up? Obviously it's too soon to answer, but.

Well, maybe Axl? Whoever it is will comprise an essentially entirely new band.

ACDCINXS

I fully expect that post to pop up in the "First Mentions" thread in five years.

J Geils Band touring without J Geils was always hilarious

Pop Will Eat Itself's current line-up is just one original member

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:14 AM (three hours ago)

Even weirder is that it's one member, the singer from Gaye Bykers On Acid, and three younger dudes from nu-metal bands. Also amusingly, the reunion originally included all five classic-era members, but one by one the rest left because they couldn't work with Gra... who'd been the first to quit in 1995. (Back then they carried on for a year, until splitting over ego that the lead singer had writers' block and the late-joining drummer was bringing most of the songs.)

Mentioned in the AC/DC thread, but with Malcolm now dead, Cliff retired, Brian going deaf, and Phil in legal limbo, the current line-up is just Angus and whomever.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:16 AM (three hours ago)

For all that it will feel sad and weird if Angus carries on (though if he'd rather tour than mourn, good on him), the "whomever" is currently a guitarist who was in the band in 1988 and grew up with, went to school with (shout-out to Ashfield Boys High), & learnt guitar with the Malcolm & Angus, and a drummer who was in the band from 1989 to 1994. Plus Axl, who's a better singer than Brian Johnson.

the

For sure. And Tommy Stinson played bass in GNR longer than Duff, Richard Fortus longer than Slash and Dizzy longer than anyone but Axl.

Ha, well. My point was that Angus has striven to only use prior AC/DC members in the recent replacement calamities, not just getting in some randos and one actual Replacement.

(pre-Cliff bassist Mark Evans still plays live on the reg, but there's deep beef there.)

Pwei; ditto The Wonder Stuff! Matey and the only other person who can stand to be in the same room as him; his wife. Plus 3 other ransoms.

Wonder Stuff more egregious: when reformed PWEI got down to a duo, they changed the name as it had become something else; after it went down to one, he asked the others if they'd mind him forming a new PWEI and they all gave their blessing on the principle of "well we're not going to use the name, go ahead mate."

Whereas the members of the reformed Wonder Stuff who were managing the band and running the website found out that noted rhyming slang Miles Hunt had decided they weren't in the group anymore, when fans emailed to ask why the advertised tour dates weren't on the website. (Hunt's "main" band The Miles Hunt Club weren't selling tickets or CDs, so he just decided to rebadge them as the Wonder Stuff before sending the second album to print.)

The PWEI drummer, who's always had a gigging career, did a stint in the Stuff for a year or two recently, and the bassist stands in with EMF on their occasional reunion gigs, so I believe there have been nostalgia all-dayers with three Poppies playing, but only one in "PWEI."

Current Eagles is pretty weird: Don Henley, Joe Walsh & Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey. So you've got founder Don, longtime replacements Joe and Timothy, ringer Vince Gill and dead founder's son Deacon.

Pwei; ditto The Wonder Stuff! Matey and the only other person who can stand to be in the same room as him; his wife. Plus 3 other ransoms.

Quite like the idea of them being ransoms, not randoms.

"Please let us go."

"YOUR FAMILY HASN'T PAID YET. Now, again with "Welcome to the Cheap Seats.""

"Argh, noooo...."

Anyway, Simple Minds I guess sorta half counts though Jim and Charlie have doggedly stuck it out all these years, somehow.

The best worst might still be the fake Zombies that toured after the group dissolved, with no original members.

The original line-up declined to regroup for concerts following the belated American success of "Time of the Season". In turn, various concocted bands tried to capitalise on the success and falsely toured under the band's name. In a scheme organized by Delta Promotions, an agency that also created fake touring versions of The Animals and The Archies, two fake-Zombies were touring simultaneously in 1969, one hailing from Texas, the other from Michigan. The Texas group featured bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard, soon to be members of ZZ Top. Another group toured in 1988, going so far as to trademark the group's name (since the band had let the mark lapse) and recruit a bass guitarist named Ronald Hugh Grundy, claiming that original drummer Hugh Grundy had switched instruments.

okay that's great about ZZ Top. never knew. wonder if any of the fake Archie Bell & The Drells outfits contained the seeds of greatness.

there was a completely fake fleetwood mac lineup that toured in 1974

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac#1974:_The_fake_Fleetwood_Mac

hahahahaah thread delivers

the current Beach Boys touring act is pretty much Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, John Stamos, and a whole buncha hired guns that are in their 30s-40s.

so as you can imagine, all the Brian Wilson songs sound hella fucking weird.

^ absolute nonsense. Stamos is not in the band, Cowsill and Foskett are both 61, Totten I'm guessing is in his '50s since he's been playing for over 30 years, and I'd never pay to see them but "as I can imagine," hiring the dude who was Brian's right-hand-man and musical director for his entire solo touring career would be the best possible way to make the Brian songs not sound hella fucking weird.

looked up the keyboard player: he's 56 and has been in the touring band for 20 years

I was guessing based on the way that they looked. I was off a few decades I s'pose. (this was also 8 years ago that I saw them)

Stamos is not in the band full-time, but he played pretty much the entire show that I saw. Even sang lead on a song. It became a Stamos side-show at times, they kept drawing reference to him.

They sound weird because they're not Brian Wilson. I didn't say they didn't sound "good" - but they didn't sound like the Beach Boys, either.

there's also the fact that unlike you, I've heard them

so because John Stamos guested at one show you saw eight years ago, all of the changes to lineup, arrangements and setlists that writers about the Beach Boys have noted since then never happened, and Jeff Foskett did not swap places with Matt Jardine after the 50th anniversary tour that only used two of Mike's players. since I saw that lineup, I guess I have a better claim to "having heard them" than you?

according to http://esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs.html, Stamos has guested at three shows in the last eight years (two of which were benefits for Goodwill in Orange County, organised by Stamos, whose brother in law is the CEO). the Mike & Bruce band play over 150 shows a year.

it's entirely plausible that they sounded weird eight years ago (especially if they were playing to the sort of crowd that would even care if Stamos was there!), or that 20 of those 150 shows a year are duds now due to any number of factors. but to double down on saying "the current touring act" sounds weird on songs Brian Wilson wrote, when Mike's Beach Boys started adding loads of Brian album tracks and non-hits into their setlists for non-state-fair gigs in 2011, and JEFF FOSKETT (re-)JOINED IN 2013, is pretty pointless.

hiring the dude who was Brian's right-hand-man and musical director for his entire solo touring career

Apols for a dumb question but who are you talking about here, Sic?

Stamos was on the UK tour earlier this year.

omg who cares who is a bigger authority on the shitty mike/bruce band? yah even foskett sucks now with that shitshow. jesus.

Tim - he's talking about Jeff Foskett

Ah OK, I was under the impression that Darian Sahanaja was the Musical Director / Band Leader for most of Brian's solo touring, hence my confusion.

When I saw Bri perform Pet Sounds last year, the band leader was the sax playing guy, Paul Von Mertens - confirmed in this piece about the group:

https://www.npr.org/2016/07/09/484983061/pet-sounds-and-the-band-that-gets-to-play-it-onstage

that's interesting - can you remember whether Darian was in the band that night? I know he's not there the whole time these days. This one (from 2015) says he'd been musical director since 1999: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/meet-brian-wilsons-secret-weapon-darian-sahanaja-20150630

I don't think he was, Tim - but there were a lot of ppl on stage!

and I'd never pay to see them but "as I can imagine,"

unexpectedly I saw them for free two days ago, standing eight feet from the stage

it is with a heavy heart I must report that the "Beach Boys" sounded fucking great

not a fan to begin with, but the sublime one seems particularly gross/egregious.

like if they could afford or legally rationalize touring with a hologram, they would totally be doing that.

Well, they in that case is just Eric Wilson the bass player and Rome Ramirez at this point, as Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh quit in regret pretty early on and hired gun Josh Freese left a year or two ago.

In March 2015, Ramirez appeared on Blues Traveler's album Blow Up the Moon, co writing the song "Castaway" and "Vagabond Blues" with Dirty Heads.